It’s a Big Fracking Day in Colorado

FORT COLLINS, Co. – This college town is the epicenter in the fight over fracking.

By day's end, election results should be in on whether voters in four Colorado cities, including this one an hour north of Denver, and nearby Boulder, Lafayette, and Broomfield, will to varying degrees ban fracking.

How many of these initiatives pass could portend how successful (or not) similar efforts could be in other urban areas in California and New York. The races to watch closest are in Fort Collins, where the state oil and gas industry has poured most of its $600,000 to fight the efforts, and Broomfield.

But given President Obama's continued support for natural-gas production, these local efforts to ban fracking face uphill battles to gain much national traction.